Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., Vol. 71, No. 8. (1981), pp. 1-89.
TRANSACTIONS OF THE
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
HELD AT PHILADELPHIA
FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE
VOLUME 71, PART 8 1981
"Godded with God":
Hendrik Niclaes and His Family of
Love
JEAN DIETZ MOSS
Associate Professor of English, The CatholicUniversity of America
PREFACE
The Family of Love, the name by which the disciples of Hendrik Niclaes were known in England, must certainly pique the curiosity of almost anyone. The name together with the reputation for loose living and absurd theological pretensions that attached to the sect throughout its existence on the Continent and England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, makes it surprising that the group has never been studied in its entirety. Although the founder, Hendrik Niclaes, and his continental followers have been treated in a number of works, the English branch, which was far more vigorous and outlived its parent, has excited little attention.
During their lifetime the Familists attracted considerable notice. They were branded as heretics on the Continent, and the writings of Niclaes were condemned by the Council of Trent. In England, Queen Elizabeth I published a proclamation ordering Niclaes's books destroyed and his disciples speedily brought to repentance. Later, King James I warned his son about them, lumping them with Anabaptists and Puritans as an insidious danger to his realm.
Yet this band of spiritual enthusiasts was first gathered together by Niclaes in Emden in East Frisia so that they, like their master, might attain that state of union with the deity he called being "Godded with God." Believing that the Last Judgment was imminent and that he had been called to herald it, he urged all who were anxious about their souls to join the company of the elect. His disciples referred to themselves as the Husgesinnes der Lieften (the Household or Family of Love), and they attempted to live in imitation of Christ as Niclaes saw it: participating in the life of the world around them, but withdrawing together periodically for prayer and spiritual exercises. Perfected through this regimen, they expected to lead blameless lives. In spite of their motives, however, they were everywhere suspected of a variety of sins, from lewd and lascivious conduct to attempting to foment revolution.
In the face of such opposition, Niclaes and his followers adopted the strategy of Nicodemites, that is, they yielded outward conformity to society and the established church wherever they found themselves, but secretly remained loyal to their new convictions. They were extremely careful in disseminating Niclaes's message, preferring the printed word over the spoken where identities could not be hidden. Niclaes signed his works simply "H. N." and did not seek to be known personally in the remoter areas, such as England, where his writings were quite familiar to his adherents, but his identity was relatively obscure. After Niclaes's death about 1580, the continental sectsuffered a decline, except for a splinter group that seems to have preserved some continuity into the seventeenth century.
The Nicodemite strategy proved to be successful for the English branch of Familists as well. In fact, this group, which had grown so rapidly during the early years of Elizabeth's reign before the campaign against them began, continued to exist underground while the authorities raged. When surveillance was relaxed at the beginning of King James's reign, they emerged again into public view. Around the time of the Civil War their presence was frequently noted, and as late as 1687 they made an appearance at court, where they observed that few of their number were left. By this time, however, they were no longer feared; they had become a mere oddity, likened to a refined variety of Quakers.
Fortunately, Christopher Plantin, Niclaes's disciple and printer of a number of his works, left a large body of records and correspondence that has been remark-ably helpful in developing some notion of the Familist movement in the Low Countries. Taken in conjunction with manuscripts left by Niclaes's disciples and other records, a number of valuable studies have emerged from the nineteenth century onward. Research on English Familism, on the other hand, has been retarded by the absence of such correspondence and documentation. Part of the reason is that Niclaes's continental followers were drawn from literary and scientific circles while English Familists generally were found among less well educated folk: artisans, laborers, and rural people. Another explanation for the lack of full-length studies of the group lies in their desire to escape notice, their refusal to stand up and be identified for their beliefs. These attempts to hide themselves from public view were so successful that a paucity of information about them survives. Only in the last several years has painstaking research yielded some names and places that could permit conjectures to be made about social position and occupations. These studies, illuminating as they are, have underscored the need for a more substantial frame-work that would serve to draw them together and place them in a general context.
Methodologically this study of the Family of Love proceeds from the inside out. It begins with an account of the life and teachings of Niclaes, his organization of the House of Love, and its growth on the Continent. The first chapter treats also the causes of schism within the group and the differences expressed by the rival leader. Successive chapters focus on the development of Familism in England, describing its earliest stirrings
in Queen Mary's day, the effect of Niclaes's teachings as they appeared in the English editions of his books, and the rising opposition of the Crown to the movement. The final chapters treat the gradual disappearance of the sect and reflect upon the ultimate influence of their views on the colony at Massachusetts Bay.
The objective of the book is to provide a general survey of Familism, centering on the more luxuriant English-speaking branch. The bits and pieces are drawn together in order to create a more or less coherent whole: citations in official records, confessions and writings of Niclaes and English Familists, asides in literature, references in sermons, and lengthy excoriations of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century treatises. The study also examines Niclaes's writings in considerable detail, not only for their content but also for the effects of their style and rhetoric upon his disciples and his critics. Throughout I have modernized spelling and punctuation in quoting from early printed works and manuscripts. Titles of the original sources are, however, retained as they appear. In order not to overburden the text, I have included in appendices transcriptions of some Familist documents that figure importantly in the discussion.
In the preparation of this material, I have profited from discussions with numerous scholars, among them Jan van Dorsten, Herman de la Fontaine Verwey, A. G. Dickens, Felicity Heal, and F. J. Levy. Christopher Hill was especially helpful in directing my attention to previously unnoticed manuscripts and in encouraging me to persevere in the task. To Joseph Martin I owe special thanks for his careful reading of the manuscript and many helpful comments, based on his own considerable knowledge of Familism. In addition, William A. Wallace offered invaluable criticism, advice, and assistance throughout the final stages of the preparation of the manuscript.
Without the aid of grants and stipends from various sources the study could never have been undertaken. Support for the first stages was provided by Educa
tional Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, while Washington, D.C.
"GODDED WITH GOD": HENDRIK NICLAES AND HIS FAMILY OF LOVE
JEAN DIETZ MOSS
Contents
I. The Genesis of the Family of Love
The context 7
Emergence of a prophet 8
Niclaes's later years 15
The House of Love 17
The Hiel branch 20
H. The Growth of Familism in England
Early intimations 22
Christopher Vitel 26
Spread of the movement 28
III. Response to the New Gospel
The critics 30
English editions 31
The call 35
The revelations 36
The message 38
IV. Repression by the Crown
Official reaction under Queen Elizabeth 47
The movement under the early Stuarts 54
V. Vestiges of Familism
Metamorphosis 58
A remote strain 63
Henry More and Lady Conway's circle 66
The Quakers 67
Appendices 70
Bibliography 81
Index 87
I. THE GENESIS OF THE FAMILY OF LOVE
THE CONTEXT
That the Family of Love came into being during the most turbulent years of the Reformation era is not surprising. Many sects appeared during the sixteenth century, each claiming to offer some more authentic expression of the Christian message. What was unique about the House of Love or the Family of Love founded by Hendrik Niclaes' was that it was not organized to protest the abuses of the Catholic Church, nor did Niclaes find fault with Catholic ritual and basic teachings. On the contrary, he urged his followers to stay within the church; the sacraments could certainly do no harm and its teachings were true as far as they went. The problem was that they did not go far enough. Men were somehow falling away from the promise that Christ's redemption had brought. Niclaes says that he looked everywhere, and nowhere
could he find a body of men who lived as if they were saved. But, fortunately for mankind, God ordained that he should be a prophet, especially called to declare the beginning of the Last Judgment and to announce a new dispensation of love open to all who would follow the path revealed to him. This new "service of love" was open to all: Jews and Mohammedans as well as Catholics and Protestants.
Helie Nazarenus (Elijah the Nazarene), or H. N. as Niclaes abbreviated the religious name bestowed upon him, was born around 1501 and lived about eighty years. During his mid-forties he began to publish lengthy interpretations of his revelations, which he circulated widely throughout the Continent and later in England. By trade Niclaes was a merchant and a very prosperous one. His commercial interests in the Low Countries gave him an official reason to travel about and a singular opportunity to spread his message broadly. The religious strife that he encountered everywhere spurred him on, particularly the de-bates of the "scripture learned" over doctrine. Niclaes believed that his revelations could restore unity by rising above the divisions. He never wished to separate himself and his followers from the Roman church, as others had done; rather he expected to provide all sincere believers with a more refined method of attaining salvation. The inspiration of his revelations led him to develop an organization, a sect dedicated to leading disciples along the road to perfection. (The use of the term "sect" here and hereafter is not meant to indicate a separatist orientation on the part of Niclaes or the Family of Love-the name by which the group was best known in England-but it is used to convey the fact that their peculiar beliefs and practices did in effect differentiate them from orthodox Catholicism on the Continent and from Anglicanism across the Channel. In other words, although they may have regarded themselves as not having diverged from the main stream, paradoxically, they did do so and were so regarded.)
Niclaes and his followers had much in common with other enthusiasts and spiritualists of the times who centered their faith on communion with the Holy Spirit.' Some scholars have attempted to trace the spiritual ancestors of these groups from Joachim of Fiore through the Spiritual Franciscans, the German Dominicans, Eckhart and Tauler, and the Friends of
' The name is variously spelled: Heinrich Niclaes, or Niclas, in2 See the discussions in Ronald Knox, 1950, chapters 1, 7, and
German references; Henry Nicholas and Nicolas in English. I have8; Rufus M. Jones, 1909, pp. 172-173, and chapter 18; George H. used the Dutch form since the man's origin is obscure and most of Williams, 1962, pp. xxiv-xxvi, 7-8, 477-482; Steven E. Ozment,
his years were spent in the Low Countries.1973, chapter 2 and pp. 198-199.
God movement, to the Brethren of the Common Life.' Influences on Niclaes's thought are also suggested by the Theologia Germanica and the teachings of some of his contemporaries such as Melchior Hoffman, Caspar Schwenkfeld, Christian Entfelder, John Denck, Sebastian Franck and the Netherlandish Libertines. As Ronald Knox suggests, however, although some filiation is evident, "the enthusiastic tendency is one which recurs, as it were by spontaneous generation, throughout the history of the church. . . ."4 Familists, as many others, espoused the Joachimite doctrine that the age of the Holy Spirit had come, a more spiritual state evolving from the age of the Son, that had re-placed the first dispensation of the Father. H. N. pro-claimed this new age in such works as Evangelium Regni.5 Anabaptists and Familists both emphasized the action of the Holy Spirit within, but Familists went much further when they pronounced themselves to be deified or "Godded with God," as Niclaes phrased it. Similarities between Familist and Anabaptist chiliasm are also marked.
Niclaes was not the only self-styled prophet to emerge in the Low Countries at this time. David Joris, whom Niclaes knew well, began to gather disciples about five years before Niclaes started his ministry.' Joris announced that he was the third David, following King David and Christ, the Son of David. Condemned as a heretic, Joris was forced into hiding. Thereupon, he urged his disciples to cease casting their pearls be-fore swine and be content with the inner satisfaction of knowing the truth. This was the same advice Niclaes later offered to his followers.' The third prophet, Hendrik Jansen of Barrefelt, was once a disciple of Niclaes.' Near the end of his mentor's life he defected and began to call himself Hiel, "the uniform life of God," gathering a large and prestigious following in Holland.'
All three of these charismatic leaders believed that they themselves were illuminated and that without such an experience of the Spirit in each believer, the
3 Jones, loc. cit.; William Nigel Kerr, 1955: pp. 3-58; Herman de la Fontaine Verwey, 1976: pp. 222-225.
4 Knox, p. 121.
5(1575?). Citations of Niclaes's works refer to the English editions. Chapter 3 contains a discussion of these works and the critical response to them. For a complete bibliography of all the editions of Niclaes's works see Fontaine Verwey, 1940-1942: pp. 161-221.
a See Herman de la Fontaine Verwey, 1954: pp. 312-330, and Roland Bainton, 1958: pp. 125-148.
For a comparison of their views see pp. 11, 15, infra.
8 In "The Family of Love," Fontaine Verwey presents a valuable detailed account of Familism in the Low Countries and Hiel's influence there. The essay also provides additional information on the printing of Niclaes's works.
9 The phrase appears on the title page of his A Declaration of the Revelation of John out of the Vision into the true Being of Jesus Christ. Rawlinson ms 598, Bodleian Library. This manuscript bears the statement that it has been translated from the Dutch in 1657 from an edition reprinted in 1639.
Scriptures and sacraments could be of no aid in saving him from damnation. Curiously, the three acknowledged no kinship with each other; rather, each maintained the uniqueness of his own revelations. Niclaes appears to have been far more influential than the other two. His disciples were found throughout the Low Countries, France and Germany, and in England, where they survived longer than anywhere else.
Niclaes's view of the primacy of the spirit evoked sharp criticism from Catholics, Lutherans, and other Protestants who stressed the importance of Scripture and sacraments. Niclaes's position was, in fact, equivocal. Holding that Catholic doctrine and practice had a true and proper place in a continuing revelation, he wrote a tract containing a detailed analysis of the Mass and the other sacraments for the edification of his followers.10 Yet he also believed that his visions were a God-given revelation at a higher and final stage that enabled him to transcend any particular church and its authority. Since he taught his disciples that the crucial consideration was the action of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, when they found themselves in Protestant regions they could adhere to local custom and remain comfortable in the certain knowledge that they would one day inherit the heavenly kingdom. Not surprisingly, this teaching angered both Catholic and Protestant authorities, who found it heretical and pretentious, to say the least. What Niclaes had hoped would be an irenic message, then, served only to stir up further conflict and brought on persecution of his disciples wherever they were discovered. Ironically, even within the House of Love dissension developed that culminated in a schism led by a new prophet, Hiel, who claimed even further enlightenment and more essential truths.